Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave
by DariaAlpha
Summary: <html><head></head>Another unofficial novelization. This time of Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave. It will be like my one of A&O2, being a written version of the movie with my own scenes included. Rated T for now. I have no idea how much darker than the movie I'll make this. Warning: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!</html>
1. Prologue

**Author's note:** This will not be an entirely original fanfic. I'm doing what I did to A&O2 with A&O4: turning the movie into a story and adding my own scenes to it. And this will also be darker than the movie was. I will also try to include Princess in this story as I wished she'd been in the movie, even though I liked it so much that I enjoyed it better than the original. The lack of a Romeo and Juliet-type plot may play a HUGE factor in me liking A&O4 better.

And this is my only warning: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALPHA AND OMEGA: THE LEGEND OF THE SAW TOOTH CAVE YET. This fanfic will be a written form of the movie itself, so it will contain spoilers. I will not tolerate complaints about me spoiling the movie for you when I gave you a good warning ahead of time. Turn away now if you don't want A&O4 spoiled.

If you aren't bothered by that as you can't wait to see what happens in A&O4, then go ahead and read it. But for those who don't want it spoiled, read it once you've seen the movie.

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

The lone female wolf was running through a forest on a stormy night, after having fled her own pack for what they'd tried doing to her daughter, the oldest of her litter. Just because she was born blind, her pack's Alpha male had tried killing the pup, but she'd saved her daughter at the last minute. And now, she was basically exiled, a rogue wolf trying to escape being murdered for doing the right thing.

She could hear the Alphas from her pack barking and howling as she ran for her life through an unnamed forest. The sounds of their barking and howling was getting closer and it intensified as it did. They were after her because she had saved her blind daughter from being killed by her pack's Alpha male. Wolves of her pack didn't accept weakness and they considered blindness to be weakness. They wanted her little pup dead and would do anything to find her, even if that meant killing her mother too. She knew that they would drive her and her mate away from the pack if they caught either of them so they couldn't produce weak offspring again. Her pact was strict when it came to that pack law—there were no exceptions and any pups born with a deformity of any kind were to be killed as soon as it was discovered. In this pup's case, that had been when her eyes finally opened.

The wolf mother ran into the nearest bush to rest for a bit. She had been running for hours ever since her pack's Alpha male had made an attempt at her daughter's life and now they were catching her, but she just needed to rest for her and her pup's sake. She panted heavily and gasped for breathes as rain began falling. Not only did the sound of her other pack members' howls and barks make her feel unsettled, but the lightning flashes and clashes of thunder made her feel even more nervous. The night was getting darker as time went by and she needed to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Somewhere safe, where her pack members wouldn't find her or her blind pup. She didn't want to die. Not when she had a pup with her to protect.

But she knew what had to be done if she truly wanted to protect her little pup, whom she hadn't even had the chance to name before her pack's Alpha male had made an attempt on her life. But she was doing that now, during the worst time of her somewhat long life and during her daughter's extremely short life.

The wolf mother sat her pup down in the bush behind her, then turned around. She began talking to the pup. "Stay here, little Daria," she said, finally naming her pup, "until I return for you." That was all she said before she looked around, an expression of terror on her face, before running off to where her pack's Alphas were coming from. She was going to lead them away from little Daria no matter the cost. It was risking, leaving her little pup all alone, but she had to do it she wanted to lead those wolves away from her.

The lone wolf pup's eyes glow fluorescently in the dark as her mother ran off toward the wolves who were hunting them. There was a sudden yelp, one that the pup knew was her mother yelping as their pack found her. And the pup began whimpering as the sky darkened even more.

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><p><strong>Author's note:<strong> The short prologue is intentional. Most prologues in novels are about this length, if not shorter.


	2. Shadow Forest

**Chapter 1:**

**Shadow Forest**

Two years later…

A young gray wolf pup called Runt, and Omega, ran across a field to where other wolf pups, all Alphas, were being trained by his grandfathers, Winston and Tony, both Alphas. Runt's older siblings were there, as were their friends Fleet and Magril, and a female called Mica whom they weren't familiar with. Fleet and Magril were Northern Wolves, Mica was a Southern Wolf, and Claudette and Stinky were Western Wolves.

Winston and Tony circled around the pups, who just stood there obediently. No one noticed Runt as he ducked in among the Alphas. At least not anyone who wanted to tell Winston and Tony.

"Alphas," Winston said, "the first rule of a hunt is to control your fears."

"But Winston, great leader," Stinky said as he approached his grandfather, speaking in a flattery voice. "We're the wolves. They're the prey. What do we have to fear?"

"Is that mud on your snout or is it always brown?" Claudette asked her brother in a mocking voice. She was the oldest of the litter, but Claudette could also be the sassiest.

Stinky's head shot around to look at his sister. He was clearly annoyed by Claudette's remarked. "Claudette, shut it," he told her, then looked back to Winston. "As future leader of the pack—"

"Oh, please!" Claudette scoffed.

Stinky decided he should just ignore his older sister's remarks. She was probably just jealous, Stinky figured. "—I'm faster, I'm stronger—"

"Clumsier," Claudette jokingly finished for him.

"Claudette, Stinky," Winston interrupted his grandpups' friendly arguing. It was supposed to be a serious time, them being in Alpha school now. "Fear will be natural, but you must control it or it will destroy you."

"You got that, bro?" Claudette teased.

"Yeah," Stinky said bitterly, beginning to think this 'friendly arguing' was getting old fast. "Do _you_?"

"Alphas, take your positions," Winston ordered suddenly.

And all of the pups ducked down, putting their heads to the ground and their rears up in the air. All except for Runt, who didn't know the hunting position Winston had ordered the Alpha pups to get in.

Now Winston knew Runt was there and he was shocked. But Runt just sat there, smiling innocently, despite his grandfather's shock.

"Runt!" Winston gasped. "This is Alpha school. You're supposed to be in Omega school."

A look of disappointment came over Runt's face. "Aw, Grandpa Winston, I want to hunt!" he complained, then nearly got in Winston's face after running over to him. "I may be small, but I'm fearless."

Runt heard a female voice shouting as soon as those words escaped his mouth. "Hey, fearless! You get over here right now!"

Runt saw that it was his mother, Kate, an Alpha, her mate Humphrey, and her little sister Lilly, both Omegas. He gasped upon seeing them. "Oh, shoot!" he exclaimed as he jumped into the tall grass, almost thinking that his parents and aunt would leave him be if he did.

"Runt, buddy, listen to your mother," Humphrey ordered.

"Why should I, dad?" Runt argued. "You never do!"

Kate shot an angry look at Humphrey, realizing how right her youngest son was. And Humphrey seemed to be a bit embarrassed.

"Aunt Lilly has a fabulous field trip planned for Omega school," Kate said to Runt.

"Alphas get to hunt and the Omegas go on a field trip?!" Runt complained.

"We're going to an ecological phenomenon," Lilly told her nephew. She was the teacher of Omega school. "Shadow Forest," she added.

Winston and tony had been instructing the Alpha pups when they heard Lilly mention Shadow Forest. Winston didn't react at all, but Tony did. A look of pure terror came over his face and he gasped in a tone that matched.

"Shadow Forest? Cool!" Runt exclaimed. "Isn't that haunted?"

"Uh, just a myth," Lilly said, knowing it wasn't supposed to be talked about. "And that was a long time ago," she lied again. It happened only two years ago, when she, Kate, and Humphrey were not much older than Runt was now.

"Did I just hear you say you were going to Shadow Forest?" Tony asked as he and Winston made their way over to the younger wolves. The Alpha pups waited by the tall grass.

"Yes!" Lilly exclaimed excitedly. "I was there yesterday. It's fine. It's teeming with life."

"Code for food," Claudette commented with a lick of her lips.

"Hmm," Winston said thoughtfully.

"Would Garth like this, Lilly?" Tony asked with concern. He knew about how Garth, his son and Lilly's mate, didn't like when she was in danger.

"My husband is on an extended hunting trip," Lilly told her father-in-law. "He trusts my judgment."

"Well," Tony continued arguing against taking young pups to Shadow Forest, "I had a bad experience in there and I've never been back."

"When you were supposedly attacked by a ghost, right?" Winston asked almost tauntingly.

"Well, I haven't seen you going in there recently!" Tony snapped defensively.

"Lilly, you were just there and it's, uh, okay, right?" Winston asked his younger daughter.

"There were a whole lot of critters there because we've avoided an entire forest!" Lilly pleaded excitedly. She really wanted to take the young Omegas there to see it.

"Humphrey, is this a good idea?" Kate asked her mate, worried about Runt and the other Omega pups' safety.

"It'll be fine, Kate," Humphrey assured her. "I'm going with them."

"Then it's settled," Winston decided for them all. "The Alphas will be the kings of the fields and the Omegas will be the kings of the rest."

"And what's that make the Betas?" a female Beta wolf called Claws complained. "The kings of nothing? she added sarcastically.

But everyone ignored Claws' complaint when Runt excitedly jumped Lilly's height, which was at least three feet.

"Awesome!" Runt exclaimed as he jumped. "Dad, Aunt Lilly, shall we?"

* * *

><p>Shadow Forest was much darker than the rest of Jasper Park was, hence its name. The small group of Omega wolves felt uncomfortable as they walked down the trail in it. There was something in this forest and it wasn't the critters, as Lilly called them, that made the wolves feel this way. Wolves weren't afraid of any critter, but things they couldn't see…that was a different story altogether.<p>

Humphrey and Lilly were leading the group down the trailer. Runt and the other two Omegas, brother and sister, were right behind the adults.

"Okay!" Humphrey exclaimed. "I see where it got its name."

"So what happened that made us avoid it all this time?" Runt asked.

Lilly decided that she could tell them since the Alphas weren't here and they were about the only wolves who didn't want the pups knowing about Shadow Forest's past. "Some wolves claim that it's haunted with a wolf ghost," Lilly told the others as they went up a hill.

A bird's call from deep in the forest drew Humphrey's attention immediately. "Wait," he said with an urgency that made the others stop in their tracks. "I hear something!"

And as soon as Humphrey said that, a male porcupine with a dark hide seemed to appear out of nowhere. He started yelling insanely and kicking at Runt with his hind legs. But Runt didn't flinch. He was more annoyed with this porcupine than he was afraid of him.

"Is that supposed to be aggression?" Humphrey asked. He and Lilly both had angry expressions on their faces.

"You see?" Lilly said, referring to how the wolves hadn't hunted in Shadow Forest in years. "The critters aren't even afraid of us."

Runt had enough of this annoying little critter when he hollered at the wolves in an ear-splitting tone. Runt started growling at the porcupine, showing his young teeth. The porcupine growled back.

"Runt, unnecessary," Humphrey said.

A shocked look came over Runt's face. "Dad!" he complained. "If the Omegas are the kings of the forest, we have to show them whose boss!" And as if his next action was a response, Floyd, the porcupine, cuffed Runt on the hind leg, causing him to scream in pain before casting a dirty look back at him.

"I think he just did," Humphrey said sarcastically.

"Hey, wolves, the exit's thataway," Floyd said in an aggressive tone.

"Yeah, and, the forest is thataway," Humphrey countered.

"You wanna take this outside?" Floyd growled. The wolves' swore that his quills were sticking up like the hackles of wolves did when they were angry, scared, or annoyed.

"Aren't we already outside?" Humphrey countered again, looking about the clearing of Shadow Forest.

"Dad, come on!" Runt whined as the others walked past Floyd, not paying the porcupine any more attention. Humphrey immediately followed them.

"You wolves are making a big mistake," Floyd warned them but was ignored.

* * *

><p>As the five wolves stood on their hind legs, resting their front ones on a log, they were looking up a broken hillside toward a cave.<p>

"What is it?" Runt asked.

"Not sure," Lilly replied.

"It looks like someone's home," Runt said.

"Well, it certainly seems protected," Humphrey said.

"Protected?" Runt asked, confused. "From what?"

"Huh?" Humphrey gasped when the wind started blowing unexpected, sending a mass of leaves up into the air and toward the five wolves.

"That's odd," Lilly commented on the sudden occurrence. "Nothing in the clouds indicated a wind storm today." Lilly had become a bit of an expert in weather since becoming the teacher of Omega school. She had to, since all wolves had to be familiar with weather patterns to help with their survival.

As the two adult wolves discussed the wind and the two sibling Omega pups looked around, Runt got off of the log unnoticed and went over to a nearby tree.

"Uh, alright cubs, let's go," Humphrey said when he and Lilly were done discussing what they should do. "Cubs?" he asked when the brother and sister ignored him, just looking around in confusion as the wind blew leaves all around the air. They started whimpering, getting a bad feeling in their stomachs.

Humphrey turned around to see Runt climbing the tree he had gone over to unnoticed. Tree climbing was a skill that Runt had mastered over a year ago. "Runt!" he called up to his son then ran over to the tree. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going up to take a look!" Runt called down.

"My son, the tree hugger," Humphrey remarked good-naturedly.

"I think it's the Saw Tooth Cave!" Runt called down again. "The rocks around the edges look like fangs."

A look of horror came across Runt's face when he saw something that he had never seen before in his short life appear in front of the mouth of the cave. He didn't know what it was, but it blocked his view inside the cave as if it didn't want him to know what was in there. The sight of this unfamiliar figure sent a chill down Runt's spine. And before he could make out what he saw, he heard his father call out to him.

"Son, it's getting windy up there," he said with concern. "Come on, time to hit the trailer."

And when he thundered loudly, Runt screamed "Ghost!" and fell to the ground. Thankfully, he landed unharmed, thanks to the thick bed of fallen leaves, but he didn't move after reaching the ground.

Humphrey, Lilly, and the twins surrounded Runt quickly only to see that he was stiff, frozen. Runt was frozen in fear, lying on his back with all four limbs stuck straight up as if they were frozen solid. Not frozen as in cold but frozen in fear over whatever it was he had seen.


	3. Rogue Wolves

**Chapter 2:**

**Rogue Wolves**

The rogue wolves of Banff, a national park located 179 miles to the south of Jasper, were the wolves who had been defeated by the Eastern and Western Wolves over a year ago. All of the rogues, particularly King and Queen, the leaders of the Banff wolf pack, believed that the only "pure" wolves were the Alphas. There wasn't a single Beta or Omega wolf in King's pack, unless they were captured wolves from rival packs. If a wolf was born an Omega or Beta in King's pack, they were killed before Alpha pups born with physical disabilities were, even. The rogues would rather have an Alpha pup with a twisted paw live than a perfectly healthy Omega pup.

There were only two wolves in King's pack who believed that all wolves were equal. Princess and Melissa. Princess was the only surviving daughter of her parents' litter and Melissa was the highest-ranking Alpha in King's pack, under the pack leaders, of course. Princess had been against her parents' beliefs ever since her father had killed her first and currently only litter of puppies being born with birth defects or being Omegas.

In "tradition" of the rogues' brutality, King had made his own daughter kill the Omega pup, as he always forced the mothers to do. It was to show that the rogues wouldn't accept weakness to be born into their pack. While most wolf mothers who gave birth to a physically disabled, Beta or Omega pup would be driven away, Princess was an exception because King hadn't ever wanted to drive his only surviving offspring away. He believed that it had been her mate who caused her to produce "weak" pups, so he'd had him killed for getting his daughter pregnant with weak pups.

But Princess no longer had the respect of her parents or pack members that she'd had a year ago because of what she had done. When three of her father's Alphas had brought an Omega pup to Banff, taken from his parents in Jasper, she'd had enough and decided to protect this pup, called Runt, from her own pack members, even at one point attacking another called Scava when he had tried to hurt Runt. And later killing that same wolf when he tried to kill Runt. But it wasn't until that last battle between the Jasper and Banff wolves that Princess had found her true purpose in life—she had led Runt away from her father's territory, intending to return him to his real family. Only things had gone bad for Princess at that point. Her father had found her and they'd found, resulting her King being heavily wounded and Princess dying.

But, through some miracle, Princess had returned to life, only to return to her father's pack, faking regret and falsely begging for forgiveness. She hadn't done that, however, until her mother, Queen, had threatened her with becoming a slave and not getting to eat except when they decided to feed her. And now Princess was stuck in Banff again, even if she wasn't enslaved. Every day, Princess wished that she would find another chance at escaping Banff. She wanted to get to Jasper so bad, to get away from her father's brutal regime so bad. Princess was tired of her father despising all non-Alpha wolves. She wanted to go live in a place where Alpha, Beta, and Omega wolves were treated equally. And she knew that place was among the wolves of the United Eastern and Western Packs of Jasper Park, her parents' biggest rival pack, even if it was located almost 200 miles away from Banff.

"Daughter!" King yelled. "Get in here, now!"

Princess hated hearing her father's voice and having to listen to him whenever he said something about his plans to take over Jasper. He'd already failed to take over Jasper when he took Runt from Jasper Park as bait, so why was he trying again? She would foil his plans again, even if that had caused her death (prior to her return to life about a day later). Princess hated her parents, her entire pack, and would do anything to stop them. She was sure that Melissa would be with her again if it ever came to that.

"Yes, father?" Princess asked, hiding her hate for King, her father. Queen, her mother, was by his side. She had been ever since Princess had almost killed him in the final battle with the Jasper wolves. That was, maybe, about six months ago, but Princess' parents hadn't forgotten it yet.

"It's time that some wolves went to Jasper to spy on them," King told his daughter. "It's been just over half a year ago and I doubt they'll be expecting spies after so long."

"Where do I come into this?" Princess asked.

"I want you to lead them there," he explained. "Gather whatever information you can about their plans to counter attacks from us, then I want all of you to report back to me with that information."

"But why me?" Princess asked. She was truly confused and not just trying to get out of spying on the Jasper wolves.

"No one else in this pack can lead other wolves as good as you can," King explained. "Besides my mate and I, of course. But if they see you, the Jasper wolves are less likely to be suspicious than if they saw anyone else from here."

Something finally came to Princess's mind. It was a thought that she hadn't had since returning to Banff after that last battle.

_Why am I still here, in Banff?_ Princess wondered to herself. _I don't accept their beliefs—I never have and never will. What am I thinking, even staying here any longer?_

King seemed to notice that something was bothering his daughter, just based on the expression on her face. And he asked her if something was wrong.

"Yes," Princess said, with a growl. "Something _is_ wrong…"

"What?" her father asked.

"I'm not meant to be part of your pack," she admitted. "I'm nothing like you or the others."

King was stunned, as was Queen.

"What?" Queen gasped, nearly fainting.

"You have to be joking?" King said in a way that sounded like a question.

"No, I'm not," Princess said. She was beginning to snarl and raise her hackles. Her tail and ears had already stuck up. "And I am leaving Banff…to never come back."

"W-Where will you even go?" Queen gasped. "No one else would accept you, a rogue wolf!"

"Jasper," Princess said without hesitation. That word caused her mother to faint instantly, but she didn't care.

"No!" King gasped. The word "Jasper" had become a profanity in Banff ever since his pack was defeated by those wolves.

"Yes, I am," Princess said resolutely. "I am done being loyal to you and I am done being your daughter. I wish I were never born to either of you! I would say this is goodbye, but that would imply that I care about you two. I don't. I hope I never seen either of you, or anyone else from this pack other than Melissa, again!"

And Princess ran out of the cave, feeling no remorse. She didn't even look back to see the shocked expression on her _former_ father's face. She didn't want to see it again. She was heading to a better place where they'd never bother her again.

And there was one wolf Princess had been dying to see for the past few months. The one whom she rescued from her own pack when he was still a ball of fuzz—Runt.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note:<strong> No, this does not mean that there is going to be a subplot involving the rogue from Banff. This idea of Princess being in A&O4 came to me after learning that she's not in the movie (before I had seen it) when I had wanted her to be. That was my only complaint about it, but I have ideas for after this that include her while keeping the plot of the movie the same.


	4. Tony's Dark Past

**Chapter 3:**

**Tony's Dark Past**

Humphrey and Lilly returned to the Alpha den immediately after the incident in Shadow Forest. They still had no idea what happened, as Runt was frozen with fear, and therefore, unable to tell them what happened. Humphrey was carrying a still fear-frozen Runt on his back as they entered the Alpha den. They had sent the other two Omega twins home to their parents before coming here.

"Hi Eve," Humphrey greeted Kate and Lilly's mother as he and Lilly entered the den. They could tell that Eve was angry over the fact that they had missed dinner.

"Hi mom," Lilly said. Both she and Humphrey had greeted Eve, who was Humphrey's mother-in-law due to him being Kate's mate, hoping that their words would calm her a bit. Eve was known for her sudden and aggressive outbursts.

"Oh, there you are," Eve said, anger in her voice somewhat noticeable. "Why are you so late?" she asked, getting up. "Dinner's gone cold."

"Uh, Runt had an incident," Humphrey explained. The others only then noticed that Runt was on Humphrey's back, legs sticking straight up in the air.

"Dad, I'm fine!" Runt argued. But the fact that his legs were twitching, and that his body was shaking and felt ice cold to the touch told Humphrey otherwise.

"What did you see?" Kate asked her son as he crawled down from his father's back.

"Nothing!" Runt said in an annoyed voice. He sat down by his father's front leg, sticking his hind ones out in front of him.

Tony suddenly started groaning in sleep. He was having a bad dream, the others assumed. "Stay away! Stay away!" he cried, but didn't wake from his nightmare.

"Something got your fur in a bunch?" Claudette asked in a concerned tone.

"Little bro, y-you're as pale as a coyote," Stinky stammered.

But his siblings' words seemed to only annoy Runt. "A coyote? Really?" Runt spat.

"Hey, did you alert the critters that the Omegas are the new kings of the forest?" Stinky asked tauntingly, a sudden change of tone from the concerned one he had spoken in only seconds earlier.

"I think a different field trip is a good idea," Kate said, causing Runt to gasp. He wanted to go back to Shadow Forest to see the wolf whose eyes he had seen glowing in the darkness of the cave before seeing whatever it was he had.

"Kate, it's not a bad place to explore," Humphrey said.

"Yeah, critters everywhere!" Lilly agreed excitedly, showing a wide smile on her face.

"I have an idea," Eve said good-naturedly. "Let's all go. We can do a hunt." She growled viciously, showing her teeth. "And afterwards, have a picnic!" she added in the same cheerful tone.

"Stay away! Stay away…" Tony groaned in his sleep again.

Eve had enough of Tony saying "Stay away" and he decided to do something about it. "WOLF ATTACK!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Winston and Tony both woke up immediately and screamed, "WAR!" Then they realized how Eve had done that only to wake up them up and they felt a bit foolish now.

"How was the forest?" Tony asked as if nothing had happened.

"Great!" Lilly told her father-in-law excitedly. "Except that place has some strange weather patterns," she added in a less excited voice.

"Windy, right?" Tony asked, recalling what happened to him there.

"Yeah," Lilly said.

"Especially up by Saw Tooth Cave," Runt added.

"Runt, I told you to stay away from that place," Tony scolded.

"Grandpa Tony, what happened to you when you were there?" Runt asked.

"Don't act like you don't want to tell them your story," Winston said, just knowing that his brother-in-law was one for telling stories whenever the opportunity came up.

"I really don't," Tony said nervously. But when the pups approached him, smiling innocently, he quickly changed his mind only because they wanted to hear it. "Well, okay! It was a dark and cold night."

"And if it's Tony's story, it'll be even darker and colder," Winston remarked, then fell back asleep.

"There we were, young wolves like yourselves. We were practice hunting, on the tail of a major prey. It was huge!" Tony remembered that how he had been hunting a squirrel, but he decided to leave that detail out and lie about it instead. "Antlers as sharp as rock. We stalked it across the path. I had to get it. It was my first act as a future leader."

"It looks like it went into that cave," a pup called Lyle said.

"That dark and creepy cave," the other one, called Link, said.

Lyle and Link, identical twins, were good friends of Tony, who was between them. He was the oldest and largest of the three, nearly an adult. But they were still pups.

"Okay, Lyle and Link, you twins go check it out," Tony told them.

"Why us?" Lyle and Link asked together.

"Because if anything happens to one, there's always a spare," he had told them.

"I was so selfless!" Tony told the group, interrupting his own story.

"Think about it. You'll come back with your biggest prey yet!" Tony went on with his story.

Lyle and Link only went about half way up the hill before stopping when the wind started blowing, sending leaves all around the two pups. "Come on, let's do this thing!" Tony urged them on, but the pups ran down the hill instead. "Oh, for howling out loud! What is wrong with you two?"The twins didn't say anything. "I'll do it!" Tony made it to the top despite the powerful wind, but a wolf ghost appeared behind him suddenly. He remembered feeling a chill run down his spine before darting out of the cave out of the cave, down the hill, screaming as soon as he saw it. "Run! Run! It's gonna get us!" he screamed at Lyle and Link as he ran by.

"It's gonna get us! It's gonna get us! It's gonna get us!" Tony screamed repeatedly, as if he were relieving that day again. He squirmed nervously before speaking again.  
>"And I never went into the forest again," he concluded.<p>

"Okay!" Kate interrupted. "I think it's getting late."

"Uh, yeah. I agree," Humphrey said. "Uh, pups. Thank Grandma for dinner," he told Runt, Claudette, and Stinky.

"Thanks for dinner, Grandma," Claudette, Stinky, and Runt said together.

"Come back for leftovers!" Eve said happily as she jumped up suddenly.

"Oh, and thing Grandpa Tony for the bedtime horror story!" Humphrey said with a bitter sarcasm that Tony and the pups didn't pick up on.

"Thanks for the bedtime horror story!" the pups thanked Tony.


	5. The Pups Go to Shadow Forest

**Chapter 4:**

**The Pups Go to Shadow Forest**

"Oh, they're growing up so fast!" Kate said to Humphrey that night. "Hunting, exploring. Quite a pawful."

"Yeah, it's how a gray wolf gets even grayer," Humphrey replied. Kate yawned quietly, then fell asleep, as did Humphrey. Runt, Claudette, and Stinky had fallen asleep only minutes earlier.

His parents didn't know it, but Runt's sleep was far from peaceful. He was in the middle of a nightmare about what he had seen in front of the Saw Tooth Cave, something which he had yet to tell anyone what that something was. Not even his brother and sister knew.

"I am not afraid!" Runt was saying in his dream. "I am not afraid! I am not afraid…" And, just as it had when Humphrey and Lilly had taken a few Omegas to Shadow Forest, the ghost of a female wolf that Tony had described in his story from his younger days appeared behind Runt. The only difference was that, in reality, the ghost had appeared in front of the cave, not behind the tree. Runt was hanging onto the tree as he had a day earlier. He gasped when he saw the ghost, but it didn't get close to him as it had the day before.

Now, Runt's head looked away from the ghost and back to the cave. He could see a pair of eyes glowing in the darkness of the cave. Runt looked more closely and he could see a gray-white wolf standing there motionlessly. Runt gasped again, looking around, and then he screamed. The scream was not in his dream but in real life. While Kate and Humphrey weren't woke up, Claudette and Stinky, however, were. Concerned looks came over their faces when they saw Runt panicking.

"Are you okay, little brother?" Stinky asked Runt.

"I have to go back!" Runt replied, not answering Stinky's question, however. "I have to!" Claudette and Stinky just stared at him. Why would Runt want to go back to Shadow Forest after getting scared like he had?"Are you two with me?" he asked them. And they both said yes, even if they felt nervousness about going to Shadow Forest in their small, young stomachs.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Runt, Claudette, and Stinky were leaving the Alpha den, having already told their parents that they would just be going to the river. Kate and Humphrey had no idea that was a lie and that their pups were actually going to Shadow Forest, to the Saw Tooth Cave.<p>

"Have fun at the river!" Kate called to her pups as they neared the path that went down the side of the small mountain where the den was located. Kate appeared, sticking her out of the den's mouth. "Catch a few fish, would ya?" she asked them.

"Uh, sure thing, mom!" Runt replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

"I feel guilty," Claudette whispered to her brothers.

"Why?" Stinky asked her in a river. "Technically, we are going to the river." He intended to stop there, but didn't. "Just taking a detour," he added.

"And please—" Kate began.

Runt just knew that she was going to tell them to stay away from Shadow Forest and that somewhat annoyed him. "Mom, we're cool, okay?" Runt told her in a complaining tone. "We'll be back for dinner."

Kate smiled at her pups, then spoke nervously. "Bye," she said to them as they went down the side of the small mountain.

* * *

><p>"Welcome to my kingdom!" Runt said to his older siblings as soon as they crossed over into Shadow Forest, which was a part of the Western Pack's Territory even if wolves rarely came to this forest. As Lilly had explained, wolves believed it was haunted and that it should be avoided at all costs.<p>

Claudette and Stinky looked around either side of Runt nervously, feeling as if they were being watched. And not by some critters that lived in the forest, but what Lilly and Tony had both talked about. The ghost that supposedly haunted Shadow Forest. They began to speak in nervous, shaky voices.

"It's, uh, nice Runt," Stinky said. "Uh, a bit dark and…"

"…and so shadowy," Claudette finished her brother's sentence. "Okay, now we've seen it and we should high tail it over to the river."

Claudette and Stinky turned to leave, but Runt slamming his paw down on their trails prevented them from doing so. "No! I want to show you Saw Tooth Cave," he complained. Then he realized something. "Are you two afraid?" Runt asked them with a bit of a grin on his face.

"No!" Stinky said.

"No!" Claudette said.

A strange animal noise suddenly echoed through the forest, causing Claudette and Stinky to jump into the air and let out fearful yelps. They were just proven wrong. They were afraid to be here, Runt thought to himself.

"Oh, would you two wolves channel your inner Alpha?!" Runt groaned. "We're creating an image here!"

The pups heard laughing and turned to see two female porcupines, twins called Frieda and Fran, laughing at Claudette and Stinky.

"Great!" Runt complained.

"Identify yourselves!" Stinky ordered them.

"Identify yourself!" Frieda countered, in a voice that barely sounded as serious as Stinky's had.

"Well, we asked you first!" Claudette argued stubbornly. "And we outrank you guys!" she added, referring to how she and Stinky were Alpha wolves. But that seemed to mean nothing to these two.

"Check out wolf girl!" Fran laughed. "She has got some serious attitude!"

"And what is with that fur?" Frieda asked her twin. "Is that a mullet?!"

Claudette gasped with offense, only to start mocking the porcupines' cocky tone. "Well, well!" she said in a voice that sounded nearly identical to Fran's. "If it isn't the _Mean Girls_ of Shadow Forest!"

"Okay, now look," Runt interjected. "Let's all try and be friendly here! I'm Runt, the future king of the forest." Frieda and Fran just laughed at Runt, thinking he sounded foolishly with that "king of the forest" talk.

"Says who?" Fran continued mocking Run.

Stinky had enough of these two critters insulting his little brother. And not only that, they were insulting Winston as it was their grandfather who had decreed that Runt would rule over the forest when he was older.

"Says _Winston_, the leader of the wolves," Stinky pointed out bitterly. "And I do believe we can come and go as we wish!"

"And I do believe you can't!" Frieda countered, much to Stinky's annoyance.

"Hey, we're not here to cause problems," Runt brought himself between his siblings and the porcupines who were against a tree. "Come on." They went down the trail that went deeper into Shadow Forest, paying no more attention to those two annoying critters. They would probably end up as lunch for other wolves anyway, the three pups thought as they walked.

* * *

><p>It didn't take them long to find the area around the Saw Tooth Cave because Runt had been there before and still remembered the way to the cave itself.<p>

"Let's do this thing," Runt said to his older siblings. And as soon as Runt said that, something familiar began to take place. It was too familiar for Runt. The wind started blowing as soon as the three wolf pups got close to the hill that lead up to the Saw Tooth Cave. "Okay…maybe we should come back another day," Runt said in an entirely different tone. It was a fearful one.

Then something Claudette and Stinky had never seen before appeared at the foot of the hill, preventing them from having a chance to get to the cave. It looked like a female wolf, only it was green and partially transparent. Runt was positive that this was what he had seen in the tree that had caused him to fall—the ghost that Tony had told them about seeing when he was barely an adolescent wolf. And it was also the same ghost Runt had seen in his dream and on that day when he fell out of the same tree that was right behind the pups.

"What is that…?" Claudette gasped with shock, as this was the first time she had seen the ghost of what looked like an older female wolf.

"It looks like a wolf," Stinky answered.

"Quick!" Runt said, for he knew what this was. The ghost was the reason he had been frozen with fear. Just the ghost's presence made them feel cold and feel chills running down their spines. "This way!"

The pups ran to the intersection at the trail that they had just come up, but they couldn't remember whether they had entered the area from the left trail or the right trail now. How could they have forgotten so quickly? The pups wondered that at the same time.

"Which way is out?" Stinky asked the other two.

"We came that way, didn't we?" Claudette asked her brothers urgently, moving to the right.

"No, no! It was that way!" Runt said urgently and ran down the trail that went to the left. Claudette and Stinky followed him, their fur on their necks sticking up on end.

"Run! Run!" Claudette urged. "This way, bros!" And she disappeared into a large bush. Her brothers followed her example and hid in the bush. They could only hope the ghost wouldn't know they were hiding so close to it as it floated down the trail.

"Okay…be very quiet," Stinky whispered as he and Claudette stuck their heads out of the bush, looking for the ghost. It was nowhere to be seen, so they breathed a sigh of relief. "Where are we?" Stinky asked.

"I'll scope out the opposite direction," Claudette said. She and Stinky intended to look for the way out of Shadow Forest, but they wanted Runt to stay back.

"Runt, you stay in there," Stinky told the youngest of the three.

"What am I, the sitting paddy?!" Runt asked them in a sharp yet annoyed and offended tone of voice. Claudette and Stinky ran off in other directions, but Runt thought he heard footsteps coming back immediately, so he emerged from the bush to look around. He thought it sounded like Claudette running, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"Stinky, Claudette, anything?" Runt called.

Claudette appeared immediately. "I think I found the exit!" she told Runt. "Where is Stinky?"

"I don't know!" Runt gasped. And as soon as he did, they heard a scream coming from the trail that went to the right. It was Stinky.

"Stinky!" Claudette yelped.

"Bro! Where are you?" Runt called as he and Claudette ran down the same trail Stinky had only minutes earlier. But there was barely any sign of him having ever been there. Where could he have gone? they wondered. Runt and Claudette followed his faint scent trail to a bush, where they found a short trail of paw prints that stopped abruptly. "His paw marks stop here!" Runt gasped. And they both jumped over the bush together. "Stinky!" he called, but got no answer.

"Stinky, where are you?" Claudette called out miserably. She and Runt both feared the worst, that the ghost had gotten their brother and he was gone forever. Runt immediately started climbing the same tree he had the night before, grunting and panting as he did so. He hoped that being that high up would help him spot their brother. "Anything?" Claudette called up to Runt, who was looking all over the forest for any sign of Stinky. But he saw nothing.

"No!" Runt moaned miserably. "Nothing! I don't see him anywhere!" He looked back in the direction of the Saw Tooth Cave, away from Claudette. STINKY!" he hollered as loud as he possibly could.

Runt didn't see Stinky anywhere, even as he looked down near the canyon by the low-flowing river, but he did see the same pair of glowing eyes that he saw yesterday, and in his dream. He gasped when he saw the ghost appear at the mouth of the cave.

"It's protecting her," Runt whispered as the same female wolf he saw in his dream exited the cave and stopped at the edge. She motioned to something with her head, in the direction of the canyon. "What are you saying to me?" Runt called to her. She then pointed to the canyon with her paw. Runt looked down there to see Stinky clawing at the edges of a muddy cliff, about to lose his grip and fall into the river below. "Claudette!" Runt gasped. "I see him! I see him!" Then he climbed back down the tree.

Stinky was grunting as he clawed at the muddy rock, trying to get a grip and back up to the safety of solid ground. He was standing on loose rock and gravel that could give away at any moment. All three of them knew that. Claudette thought quickly and ran to get a long tree branch she had seen nearby earlier.

"Hold on!" Runt told Stinky as Claudette lowered the branch down to him. Stinky bit into it with his jaws and dug his claws into it, giving himself a firm grip that he wouldn't lose unless he let go.

"Come on, Stinky!" Claudette urged her brother on, as she and Runt pulled on the branch together. Finally, they managed to pull their brother to safety and they didn't hesitate to leave the forest before the ghost found them.


	6. Family Drama

**Chapter 5:**

**Family Drama**

"You said you were going to the river!" Kate scolded her pups as soon as they returned to the den. She and Humphrey could both tell that their pups hadn't gone to the river. They didn't show any signs of being wet with water and they hadn't caught any fish as she had requested. Their parents just knew that they had gone to Shadow Forest.

"Well, we did travel to the river," Stinky lied.

Claudette motioned to Stinky with her right paw. "And Stinky has the dog paddle to prove it," she told their parents.

"I saw something coming and freaked out," Stinky continued lying, "and then I fell! But I survived," he added almost proudly.

"Pups, enough with that forest!" Kate sighed. "Can't you stick to chasing butterflies in the valley?"

"Huh?" Claudette asked in confusion.

"Or playing in front of the cave?" Kate went on.

"Playing what?" Runt asked. Like his older siblings, he was tired of being treated like they were newborns.

"Well…you could play…howl!" Kate said almost cheerfully, with a big smile on her snout.

"Oh!" Stinky said, falsely playing along with her. "You mean like howling every fifteen minutes so you can locate us?"

Kate almost scoffed. "No!" She laughed. "On the hour will due," she said in a voice that was barely serious. It told the pups that their parents couldn't accept that they were getting older and wanted more independence from their parents.

"What's next? A leash?" Claudette asked sarcastically.

"Okay, guys," Humphrey took over, speaking in a more serious tone than their mother had. "Look, you mother is just trying you don't, you know, get your into a…situation."

"Yeah, a situation that could be bad," Stinky said, continuing the sarcasm. "Leads to bad things?"

"Didn't you two get into a lot of 'situations'?" Claudette asked, remembering the stories of their parents' adolescence that Kate and Humphrey had told them about when they were younger.

"But I wouldn't say it led to bad things," Runt said. "Well, not in the end, at least."

Kate and Humphrey looked at each other nervously, then grinned. They realized how right their pups were. They never would've married and had pups together if they hadn't gotten into the situation of being taken to Idaho by the park rangers to reproduce there.

* * *

><p>"If it isn't my favorite twins," Tony said as the twin wolves Lyle and Link, Tony's old friends who had gone with him to Shadow Forest when they were young, approached.<p>

"We hear that a bunch of Omegas went into Shadow Forest yesterday," said Lyle, the younger of the two. The only way to tell them apart was their voices. Link had a deeper voice than Lyle had.

"Against my wishes!" Tony told them.

"It must be safe if Omegas went there," Link said. Most of the Eastern Alphas were still a bit discriminatory to the Omegas, even if they had united with the Western Pack, and wolves were free to marry whomever they wanted now, regardless of their rank.

"From what I understand, it's exactly as we left it," Tony said, ignoring that shot at the Omegas. Like his Betas Claws and Scar, Tony respected the Omegas now and didn't tolerate when they were insulted by the other Eastern Wolves. But he would let it slide this time.

"Did Winston declare it for the Omegas?" Lyle asked. "I heard there was a lot of food in there."

"For your own good, stick to hunting in the fields," Tony warned them, as they hadn't seen the ghost in that area like he had. He walked away before they could say anything else to him.

"Ever since Winston allowed Kate to marry Humphrey," Lyle complained, "the Alphas have always gotten the short end."

"We found that forest first!" Link said, referring to the event of a few years ago where he, Tony, and Lyle had explored the area, hunting a squirrel, only to be chased away by the ghost.

"Yeah we did!" Lyle agreed, with a bit of a growl in his voice.

* * *

><p>Kate and Humphrey were following their pups, much to their annoyance of Runt, Claudette, and Stinky. They just wanted to be left alone for a bit, so they could feel some independence. Their parents must not be able to accept the fact that their pups were growing up and would soon be moving out of the Alpha den to find mates and start families of their own. All three of the pups were much larger than when Runt had been taken away by the rogues. They could barely be called pups anymore. Kate and Humphrey couldn't get over the fact that Runt, Stinky, and Claudette were nearly pre-teen wolves now, not the young pups they had celebrated their first winter together with a year earlier.<p>

"Can mom and dad chill?" Claudette asked her brothers with an annoyed groan.

"Let's call 'em out," Runt whispered.

"Let me," Stinky agreed, whispering. Then he said loudly, "I do believe we are being followed!" That was directed to their parents, whom hadn't realized their pups had known they were being followed until now. This was the first time they had said anything about it that Kate and Humphrey had heard.

Humphrey faked innocence when he spoke. "You think we're following you?" he laughed. "Kate, did you hear that? Their pups think they're own parents are following them! Please! Uh, I told you this was a bad idea…" he added in a whisper that only Kate heard.

"No, no!" Kate lied. "We're just, uh…going on a walk!" She laughed, then approached her pups as they stopped walking."Hey, hey. Let's do a family walk together, okay?" she asked them.

"Mom!" Claudette complained. "It's time we explored places by ourselves."

"Kate, we knew this day would come," Humphrey said in a more serious voice.

"Rejection," Kate said happily, realizing now that her pups were growing up. She didn't want to let them go, yet she knew that they couldn't keep them in the den forever. They had to find mates, start a family, and raise pups of their own eventually. And they were sure that Claudette would marry the Northern Alpha known as Fleet when that time came. They also believed that Stinky had his eyes set on a Southern Alpha called Mica and that Runt had his eyes set on a Northern Alpha called Magril, Fleet's little sister. "Horrible feeling."

Kate tried to hide the fact that she was in tears, even if they were happy ones, from her pups. This was the hardest thing Kate had ever gone through in her life, even harder than learning that Runt had been taken by the rogue wolves a year ago, as hard as that seemed to believe.

"Okay, well…stay on the path of…uh…life," Humphrey said. He was also in tears.

"And, uh, throw us a howl…" Kate tried to keep speaking in a happy voice, but she failed and finished her sentence in a much sadder tone. "…every now and then."

"I have an idea," Humphrey told his saddened made once the pups were out of hearing range. "Don't worry."

* * *

><p>The pups were walking through a forest located in the explored section of the Western Territory, unaware of how Marcel and Paddy—the goose and duck who helped their parents get home two years ago—were following them through the trees. They weren't aware of who was following them, but Claudette had a feeling that someone or something was watching over them.<p>

Unexpectedly, the tree branch Paddy had been looking over flew pack and smacked him in the face, knocking him senseless. Paddy quacked loudly as he fell out of the tree, instantly telling the pups who or what was watching them.

"That sounded like Paddy," Stinky whispered. "Uncle Paddy, is that you?" he called out, but got no answer as Paddy was still recovering, a top a bush, from the fall.

"Never send a duck to do a goose's job," Marcel groaned with frustration, then took off from the branch he was perched on.

Runt silently motioned for Stinky to run one way, while he and Claudette would go the other way. Paddy recovered in that moment and went after Stinky as he ran to the left through the wide-open part of the field. Marcel, however, had to chase Claudette and Runt through the tall grass, which was difficult for him.

"Uncle Marcel, stop following us!" Runt complained to the goose when they ran out of tall grass to run through.

"Oh, I…uh…trying to catch a field mouse," Marcel lied, making it seem as if he hadn't known it was them he was chasing. But they knew better. He would've have been able to see a field mouse's movements in grass that tall.

"Yeah right!" Claudette scoffed. "Did our parents put you up to this?"

"My beak is sealed!" Marcel said stubbornly, then started honking loudly at the two pups when they found more tall grass to run through. They ran faster when they cleared the grass again and Marcel crashed into the ground, right in front of the pups, with a painful grunt. Marcel looked at the ground with confusion as Claudette came up behind him. Neither Claudette nor Marcel noticed Runt run off in the direction of Shadow Forest.

"If we're being honked at, we tend to move!" Claudette told him, wagging her tail almost victoriously.

"Well, where is Runt?" Marcel asked her when he recovered from crashing head first into the hard ground. Claudette stopped wagging her tail and looked to her left. Runt was gone!


	7. The Secret of the Saw Tooth Cave

**Chapter 6:**

**The Secret of the Saw Tooth Cave**

Runt found his way back to the Saw Tooth Cave, intending to see the female wolf who had helped save him and Claudette save Stinky the day before. He stopped by the same tree that he had climbed up several times, first to look over Shadow Forest and later to look for Stinky. It two days since Runt's first encounter with the ghost, the one that had frozen him with fear, and a day since the three pups' encounter with the ghost, in which they had almost lost Stinky at the river.

"Hello? Hello?" Runt called up, hoping the female wolf who had helped them find Stinky the other day would answer. "I wanted to thank you for the other day. You helped me find my brother." She didn't answer."Can I come up? Is that okay?" Runt asked.

"Please don't," the female wolf pleaded. She sounded shy, Runt thought.

"Okay, we're making progress here," Runt said to himself. "I just wanna say hi." He started climbing the tree and didn't stop despite what the female wolf said next.

"I don't want any visitors," she pleaded.

"Almost there!" Runt told her. He stopped climbing so he could jump onto the first branch, which he crawled across until he was near the end. It was level with the cliff outside the cave. The wind began blowing, sending leaves all around Runt. "Okay, used to that wind already," Runt told himself, then jumped over to the ledge.

Runt snatched up a nearby pinecone as he spoke. "Bringing…a housewarming gift. It's simple, but it's, um, art. Look at the texture." The ghost appeared behind him, but Runt wasn't aware of it yet. "It says, 'Life…is a rough—'" Runt stopped when he saw the ghost out of the corner of his eye. "I am not afraid. I am the king of the forest," he told himself in a somewhat serious tone, trying to hide his fear. "Wow, that sounded pretty good." He turned to face the ghost and tried to act even braver. "Boring," he said, faking a yawn and patting his muzzle with his paw as he did that. "Doesn't scare me! I once fought a bear…" But when the ghost began to close in on Runt, a fearful tone afflicted his voice. "…cub at Rabbit Poo Mountain!"

The ghost growled loudly as a response, causing Runt to whimper and curl up in fear. He thought he was done for. "Ah!" He felt something grab him by the tail, then drag him into the cave quickly.

"You've been to Rabbit Poo Mountain?" the female wolf asked Runt.

"Yes," Runt told her. She smiled at him, sensing she could trust whoever this was. She couldn't see him, but had a good feeling about Runt. "Who are you?" he asked her.

"Come back tomorrow," she told him.

"So, um, I'm free to leave?" Runt asked, still shaken over the growling that ghost had let out. He felt cold again, like when he had fallen from the tree after his first encounter with the ghost.

"Yes, but move quickly," she warned him. Runt nodded then ran out of the cave faster than he had ever run before.

* * *

><p>Lyle and Link were heading for Shadow Forest and happened to cross paths with Frieda and Fran, who didn't take kindly to their intrusion. They felt it was their responsibility to keep all wolves out of the forest to protect the one who lived in the Saw Tooth Cave. But they didn't know that Runt was just leaving the cave after speaking to the wolf they wanted to protect and keep secret from all other wolves.<p>

"Flea alert," Frieda said.

"We let one in and now we've got the whole pack to deal with it," Fran complained, now wishing that they hadn't let Humphrey, Lilly, and those three Omega pups into the forest two days earlier.

"Well, if it isn't wolf squared," Frieda said to Lyle and Link in an insulting tone.

"Look, tasty prey," Lyle said, with a lick of his lips.

"And so plump," Link added, also licking his lips.

"What?" Fran gasped. She was aghast at that comment.

"Should we take them down?" Frieda asked Fran in a shockingly serious tone.

"I wonder how _they _would taste," Fran enunciated in the same insulting tone Frieda had said insulted these two for being twins in.

"Gross me out," Frieda complained.

"Psych!" Fran said. "I wouldn't eat a wolf. Like, disgusting."

"Are they sneering at us?" Lyle asked Link, who couldn't answer before the two porcupines snarled viciously at the twins.

"Okay, that critter just gave me a territorial challenge!" Link said. He sounded almost offended.

"Go ahead, show the porcupine who's top dog," Lyle told him. Then Link proceeded to mark the nearest tree, causing the two porcupines to gasp with disgust.

"He's marking my favorite tree?" Fran was offended by that action.

"Oh, gross!" Frieda gagged.

"You know, in this lighting, they're almost cute," Link said mockingly.

"That does it!" Fran snapped. They both snarled viciously again, intending to drive these annoying wolves away. But Lyle and Link ran off into the forest, instead.

"Great," Frieda complained. "They were supposed to run _out_ of the woods!"

* * *

><p>Lyle and Link found the Saw Tooth Cave, for the first time since they were only pups, quickly, and right after Runt had been told he could leave.<p>

"Wait," Lyle said, causing his brother to stop in his tracks. "I went first last time," he complained.

"Okay, put your paw out," Link said. He was a bit annoyed and didn't understand why his younger twin always insisted on playing these stupid games, even at serious times.

"Ready?" Lyle asked, increasing Link's level of annoyance.

"Leaf, teeth, rock," they said together, then proceeded to play a wolf version of what humans called "rock, paper, scissors." Of course, since the wolves didn't have opposable fingers, it was rather difficult for them to play in a way that made sense. But it seemed to make enough sense to them.

"I won!" Link proclaimed loudly, just glad that he wouldn't have to get anywhere near that cave. "Take that."

"Just like last time…" Lyle complained in a growl, as he went to go up the hill that led to the cave. But the wind started to howl and they saw the ghost appear not far away from the hill. And when it approached the twins, they forget all about uncovering the secret of the cave and ran out of Shadow Forest screaming like two wolves who had just angered Eve.

"Come again!" Frieda and Fran said to the twins as they ran by, screaming. They waved their small paws goodbye to add to the insult.

* * *

><p>Only minutes later, a group of eight wolves was chattering to Winston and Tony about the rumors of ghost sightings in Shadow Forest. Lyle and Link were among those wolves and were the source of those rumors, clearly.<p>

"Order, order!" Winston barked. Kate and Humphrey may be the Alpha female and the Alpha male now, but Winston acted as her Beta wolf, dealing with all minor problems such as the rumors of the ghost.

"Speak," Tony ordered.

"Winston, Tony," Lyle said, "we ventured into Shadow Forest and we saw for ourselves…that forest is haunted!"

And as a result, all six of the wolves behind them began laughing at the twins.

"There is a ghost of a wolf," Link added, ignoring the others' laughter.

"Where?" Winston asked.

"It was this image in the trees," Link explained.

"Been telling your stories lately?" Winston directed that question not at the twins but at Tony, remembering how he had told their grandpups about his strange encounter with a ghost in the same forest when they were both young. It had been before Eve was pregnant with Kate and Lilly, and before Garth's mother was pregnant with Garth and his siblings. In fact, Winston and Tony hadn't even known the two females later became their mates when that had happened.

"And there are these two witches," Lyle said, remembering Frieda and Fran suddenly.

"Witches?" Winston gasped. Just that word caused him to repeat it in an aghast tone.

"Yeah, these two porcupines," Link said, causing the entire group behind them to fall over kicking and laughing harder than they ever had in their lives. And that made Lyle and Link feel like fools.

* * *

><p>Later that night, while Link and the rest of the pack were sleeping, Lyle began pawing his older brother on the shoulder. Link woke up and was clearly annoyed with his little brother for waking him up in the middle of the night.<p>

"Do you mind?" Link grumbled. "I was having a nice dream about a Moonlight Howl."

"No one believed us," Lyle complained.

"Yeah, it stunk," Link said. "Now back to my dream…and you're not in it," he added in a tone meant to insult his brother.

But that didn't seem to bother Lyle. Not after being laughed at by their own pack members. He didn't care if his brother insulted him. "And now we look pathetic to our pack," he continued complaining.

"Try to sleep it off," Link told him, with his eyes closed.

"If we chase the ghost out, we'll be heroes," Lyle said. He knew that would get his brother to listen.

"We'll need more wolves," Link said, suddenly agreeing. They looked at four wolves who were sleeping nearby—Claws, Scar, Candu, and Hutch, four of the many Beta wolves in the pack. They would make perfect help because of their strength, the twins figured.


	8. Princess!

**Chapter 7:**

**Princess!**

"Runt!" Kate scolded Runt for a second time. "We told you to stay out of Shadow Forest!"

"I had to go thank the wolf who helped Claudette and I save Stinky," Runt explained, trying not to sound like he was arguing.

"You shouldn't have gone alone, then!" Kate continued scolding. "Not after what happened to you the first time you went there and all three of you the second time you went there."

"Kate," Humphrey said. "Runt meant well by going there to thank her for what she did. We would've done the same, as Stinky wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for her, and went to thank her. Maybe we should still go do that."

"She's rather shy," Runt told his parents. "Her words were 'I don't want any visitors'."

"I stand corrected," Humphrey said in a deadpan voice.

"If we stayed out of the Saw Tooth Cave," Runt said, "I think she would be alright with me bring you to thank her."

"You were in Saw Tooth Cave?" Kate gasped, nearly falling over in a dead faint when she heard that. "Oh, my…" And she nearly fell flat on her back, legs sticking up in the air. If it weren't for Humphrey and Lilly, she would've fallen backwards.

It took a minute for Kate to relax and regain her balance. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't expect to hear that. I think it is for the best that we wait a while before going there to thank here, since you told us she doesn't want visitors. But please, Runt, do not go there again until we do, and please stay out of the Saw Tooth Cave."

"There's nothing bad in there," Runt almost pleaded. "That one wolf is the only thing living in there and I'm sure the ghost won't bother us if we don't get too close to the cave."

"Ghost?!" Kate gasped. And that did it. She fainted immediately. And Runt let it be known that he felt bad about causing her to faint, but Humphrey told him to not blame himself.

"Kate!" a female voice called. "Humphrey! There's someone out here you must see to believe."

"Who could it be?" Runt asked. While Lilly stayed with her fainted sister, Runt, Humphrey, Claudette, and Stinky exited the Alpha den. They saw that it must've been Claws who called them, but they didn't pay the Beta wolf any attention when they saw another wolf who was very familiar. She had a brown fur coat, a rough-looking mane, and looked a lot like Claws. It was…

"Princess!" Runt gasped. He never thought he would see her again after they had parted ways a year ago in Banff, after she had remarkably returned to life when they had all feared her dead.

"What?" Lilly gasped. And hearing the name "Princess" must've gotten to Kate as she woke up in that moment and said the same thing.

"Princess is here?" Kate gasped, seeming to have forgotten entirely about what had caused her to faint. "Where is she?"

"Just outside our den, talking to wolves!" Runt said excitedly, then darted back out of the cave, and ran down the hillside to greet his old friend. "Princess! Princess!"

Princess recognized that voice immediately and she spun around quickly, forgetting about the conversation she'd been having with her old friend Claws.

"Runt!" Princess gasped. "My, you've grown since I've last seen you."

Runt wagged his tail and squealed with joy, then began rubbing his head all over Princess's leg in an affectionate manner. "Oh, I've missed you!" Runt told her.

"I've missed you, too," Princess returned.

"What are you doing here?" Kate asked. She was shocked to see Princess again.

"I left my father's pack," Princess said. "I couldn't stand being around those rogues anymore and dealing with their beliefs, so I just left them. My mother fainted when I told her where I would go, but I don't care. I hope she doesn't wake up from her faint! The world would be better off without someone like her."

"What did you come here for?" Kate asked.

"I wanted to leave Banff forever and never see any of the wolves there again," Princess explained. "And Jasper is the only place I knew would accept me if I went there. I hope to live a better life here, as a Western Wolf, than I did in Banff under my father's orders. I refuse to call them 'mother' and 'father' anymore—they are too horrible of wolves to deserve such a term. I will only refer to them by their real names, "King" and "Queen" from here on out. And I refuse to accept being called their daughter. I would rather be a lone wolf than live under their orders ever again."

"I'm so glad that you're here," Runt told her. "I never thought I would see you again after what happened in Banff."

"What is with all the rumors of a ghost in a forest?" Princess asked. "I heard two twins talking with some other Eastern Wolves about how some forest called Shadow Forest is haunted with the ghost of a wolf."

"It's true," Tony said as he approached the group. "I saw that ghost when I was younger than you are now and Runt has seen it at least three times now."

"What?" Princess gasped. She had never believed ghosts to be real, but if Runt, of all wolves, had seen the same ghost three times, then how could she doubt their existence.

"Lyle and Link claim to have seen the ghost as well," Eve told her. "Not many wolves believe in its existence, other than the few who have seen it—Runt, Tony, Lyle, and Link."

"I think the ghost is protecting the wolf who lives in the cave there," Runt said suddenly, causing all of the wolves to gasp with disbelief.

"Now, Runt," Princess said. "I'm here. Let's not worry about the ghost or anything. You can go looking for that later. Let's just catch up on lost time. It's been, what, an entire year since we've last seen each other?"

"You're right," Runt said. "I want to spend some time with Princess for a while, if that is alright, Mom and Dad."

"It's alright with me," Humphrey said.

"And with me," Kate said.

Neither of them had forgotten Princess' actions a year ago when they had been fighting her pack to get Runt back. Princess had given her life to save Runt and had returned after getting a second chance at life. Kate and Humphrey both knew they could trust their youngest son with Princess.

And maybe Princess was the one thing they needed to keep Runt away from the Saw Tooth Cave, at least for a while.


	9. Daria's Past Revealed

**Chapter 8:**

**Daria's Past Revealed**

Runt ran out of his parents den the next night, panting heavily. He grunted as he hopped off the ledge to get on the trail that led to the ground below. He ran down it until he reached the ground, where he ran over to and stopped by a small bush. He intended to 'take care of business' until he saw four Eastern Wolves talking in whispers. The two gray ones were Lyle and Link, and the other two, the orange and brown one, were Claws and Scar, the highest-ranking Betas of the Eastern Pack.

"Hey there," Runt said to the group.

The four wolves looked at Runt immediately, shocked expressions coming over their faces. They hadn't expected to see him or anyone out this late at night, other than themselves, of course.

"Runt," Lyle said in a tone that told Runt that Lyle wasn't happy to see the pup. "Isn't it a little later for you to be out?"

"I had to, uh—you know," Runt said, casting a glance at the bush.

Link laughed at this. He didn't believe Runt, even if he was telling the truth. "Get back to your cave," he growled.

"What's going on?" Runt asked.

"Mmm. Nothing," Lyle lied. "Not at all." The four wolves then proceeded to surround Runt.

"By the way, what exactly did you see in Shadow Forest?" Link asked Runt. "Anything unusual?"

"Uh, no," Runt lied. "Nothing." Claws and Scar just stared as Link growled at Runt, who whimpered quietly. "Actually, yeah," he changed his answer, but lied about where he saw it. "There, um—There was something way down by the river."

"Like what?" Lyle asked harshly.

"Something strange down there," Runt said as Claws and Scar allowed him to pass. The four wolves went back to whisper as Runt ran off.

* * *

><p>Runt immediately went back to the hill at the bottom of the Saw Tooth Cave. He found the tree that would allow him to get into the cave before the ghost could stop him, then began to climb it again. He grunted as he climbed, then began speaking once he had reached the branch he would jump from.<p>

"Hello?" Runt asked. "Hello." The ghost appeared behind the tree as soon as he said that. Runt noticed its appearance immediately. "Um, excuse me?" He began to stammer fearfully. "Sorry to bother you so late. I need to tell you something."

"Come here," the female wolf told him. Runt jumped off of the branch, sailing across the gap, and landing on the ledge outside the cave. He entered and saw her immediately.

"Are you hiding from another pack?" Runt asked her.

"Yes. Because, uh—" she began, but didn't feel comfortable with finishing her explanation. She hated thinking about her past and how bad of a start of life she'd had.

Runt noticed, just now, that she was blind, and he knew why she was hiding from a wolf pack, which he assumed was the one she came from. "Because a wolf who can't see isn't considered useful to some?" he asked her sympathetically.

"Yes," Daria confirmed sadly, then turned around and walked further back into the cave.

"Then how did you know where my brother was that day?" Runt asked. He was confused now.

"I heard a splash," Daria explained as she walked, "and, well, I have other talents."

"How did you get up here?" a male porcupine asked Runt in a stunned voice. It was Floyd, the same one who had tried to drive them away a few days ago.

But before Runt could explain, the three of them heard other wolves barking and howling in the distance.

"You brought them?!" the female gasped. She couldn't believe it and the shocked, horrified expression on her face told Runt that.

"No, I came to warn you!" Runt pleaded. "They'll come after you."

"You know how to get to Rabbit Poo Mountain," Daria stated, even though that was a question.

"Yes," Runt confirmed.

"Can you take me there?" Daria asked. Runt didn't know it, but that was where she was born two years earlier.

"Daria?" Floyd gasped. "Are you kidding? He's a pup!" Daria didn't know that because she was blind. She had only assumed Runt was an adult wolf, despite his young and somewhat high voice.

"I am not a pup!" Runt said defensively, slamming his paw on the ground. Daria smiled, while Floyd stared blankly, accepting Runt's statement as fact. She couldn't see any different, so Daria automatically believed that Runt was an older wolf. But what Runt said next changed her thought. "I just look like one," he added, somewhat ashamed, before changing the subject. "My name is Runt. What's at Rabbit Poo Mountain?" he asked.

Runt's words caused Daria to have a flashback of her past. As her mother, her brother, and her sister trotted across their territory, a blind Daria had been looking around for them, completely unaware of how her family had gone off. Her family thought Daria had followed them, but she hadn't, and was now looking for them, as best a blind wolf could, anyway.

"She can't possibly raise future hunters," the pack's Alpha male, only name by the name "head wolf," said, "when one of those pups is—" He stopped when he and the wolf by his side heard a low thud. Daria had just run into the log, having not known it due to her blindness.

The head wolf began to growl as he slowly approached Daria, stalking her as if she were his prey. He intended to kill the pup for being blind, as, in his pack, weakness was not accepted. He had killed many pups in the past for being born blind, born with twisted paws, and another of other disabilities. He only cared about hunting so, if a wolf couldn't do due to a disability they were born with, then they shouldn't live to become an adult. That was something many of the Alphas of the Southern Pack believed. But it was only a belief of the Southern Pack, the part of it that lived at Rabbit Poo Mountain anyway, not the larger part of the pack. The other wolf packs in Jasper didn't believe in killing pups for being disabled. They were just deemed Omegas rather than killed in the rest of the Southern Pack, the Northern, Eastern, and Western Packs.

Daria hadn't noticed the head wolf going in for the kill at first, but that had changed when he growled loudly. He had done that to announce his presence, not caring if Daria had known if he was there or not. She couldn't see him anyway, so what did it matter? That was what he thought about Daria. He roared even louder than he had growled when he lunged at the blind pup. Daria heard him, having a level of hearing that greatly made up for her lack of eyesight. Daria cowered, curling up in a ball and covering her head with her paws.

Daria would've died two years ago if it hadn't been for her mother. She had snatched Daria up in her jaws, saving her oldest daughter at the last second. The head wolf had crashed face first into the hard ground of the mountain, but recovered immediately. He saw Daria's mother running in the other direction, carrying the blind pup in her jaws.

"It is the way of the pack," the head wolf growled, then took off after them. Daria's mother had looked at her mate and two pups one last time before leaving. They might've been watching in horror, but the father had nodded understandingly. She noticed that and turned her head away, attempting to run even faster.

Daria's mother had run all the way to the forest that was now Shadow Forest, on a stormy night, having fled her own pack for what they had tried doing to her daughter, the oldest of her litter. Just because she was born blind, the head wolf of her pack had tried killing the pup, but she'd saved her at the last minute. And now, basically exiled, she was nothing more than a rogue wolf trying to escape being murdered for doing the right thing.

She could hear the Alphas from her pack barking and howling as she ran for her life through an unnamed forest. The sound of their barking and howling was getting closer and it intensified as it did. They were after her because she had saved her blind daughter from being killed by her pack's Alpha male. Wolves of her pack didn't accept weakness and they considered blindness to be weakness. They wanted her little pup dead and would do anything to find her, even if that meant killing her mother too. She knew that they would drive her and her mate away from the pack if they caught either of them so they couldn't produce weak offspring again. Her pact was strict when it came to that pack law—there were no exceptions and any pups born with a deformity of any kind were to be killed as soon as it was discovered. In this pup's case, that had been when her eyes finally opened.

The wolf mother ran into the nearest bush to rest for a bit. She had been running for hours ever since her pack's Alpha male had made an attempt at her daughter's life and now they were catching her, but she just needed to rest for her and her pup's sake. She panted heavily and gasped for breathes as rain began falling. Not only did the sound of her other pack members' howls and barks make her feel unsettled, but the lightning flashes and clashes of thunder made her feel even more nervous. The night was getting darker as time went by and she needed to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Somewhere safe, where her pack members wouldn't find her or her blind pup. She didn't want to die. Not when she had a pup with her to protect.

But she knew what had to be done if she truly wanted to protect her little pup, whom she hadn't even had the chance to name before her pack's Alpha male had made an attempt on her life. But she was doing that now, during the worst time of her somewhat long life and during her daughter's extremely short life.

The wolf mother sat her pup down in the bush behind her, then turned around. She began talking to the pup. "Stay here, little Daria," she said, finally naming her pup, "until I return for you." That was all she said before she looked around, an expression of terror on her face, before running off to where her pack's Alphas were coming from. She was going to lead them away from little Daria no matter the cost. It was risking, leaving her little pup all alone, but she had to do it she wanted to lead those wolves away from her.

The lone wolf pup's eyes glow fluorescently in the dark as her mother ran off toward the wolves who were hunting them. There was a sudden yelp, one that the pup knew was her mother yelping as their pack found her. And the pup began whimpering as the sky darkened even more.

But as soon as Daria had been left alone, after hearing her mother slaughtered by the other wolves of their pack, a then young Floyd had appeared from a bush. He had sympathized with Daria, who was blind and had just lost her mother to their own pack.

"Psst! Psst!" Floyd had called. "Come with me. I know a safe place." Daria, then a pup, had seen no other option, as she had sensed that she wouldn't see her mother again. But she truly had no idea that her mother had been killed two years ago and hoped that she was still alive. She hoped she would hear her mother's voice again at least once in her life.

"I just want to hear her voice once," Daria cried, after she finished telling Runt about what she had been through, and why she feared other wolves. The fact that she could still hear those four Eastern Wolves barking in the distance did nothing to comfort Daria, after telling Runt how she had been separated from her mother, and remembered nothing but the sound of wolves barking and howling as they had hunted her down, hell bent on killing her for her disability.

"I told them to go to the river," Runt told Daria and Floyd now.

"So you did bring 'em here," Floyd growled. His quills stuck up as a wolf's hackles did when they were angered, annoyed, or frightened.

"No," Runt told the porcupine. "Daria, we have to leave," he said, turning back to the wolf.

"It's a trap," Floyd cautioned. "He's still a wolf," he reminded her.

Daria didn't answer, even though she trusted Runt. Why would a pup betray her like the adults of her pack had? Daria looked around the cave when the four wolves' barks and howls intensified suddenly, reminding her even more of those events that separated her from her mother.

* * *

><p>"Something is up there," Lyle said to the others.<p>

The group of four could hear Daria, Runt, and Floyd talking. But, thankfully, they had no idea that Runt was the third voice they heard, or things would be much worse for Runt than they already were just because of these four wolves' presence. But there was something they didn't know. Daria, Runt, and Floyd had already snuck out of the cave unnoticed.

"If we storm it all at once, we can get to it," Link told them. "Okay, follow me!" he howled, then began running up the hill. The other three followed them, even though the ghost had appeared immediately after sensing that the wolves had gotten close to the cave that Daria lived in. As a result of the ghost's appearance, the wind began to blow, sending leaves all over, and making it difficult for the wolves to get to the cave.

"Push on, Brother!" Link ordered, the strain in his voice showing tremendously.

The wolves barely made in inside the Saw Tooth Cave only to see that there was nothing in the cave. No ghost or living creatures were there, though there were signs of a wolf, a pup, and a porcupine having been at the back of the cave.

"No ghost," Lyle said.

"Yeah," Link said, seeing the two pairs of eyes in the darkest part of the cave. He thought they would have some easy prey, even if they hadn't found the ghost. "But maybe—"

All four of the wolves gasped with horror when the "prey" appeared out of the darkness. Before they could react, they found themselves screaming and whimpering as they ran back down the hill, their faces stuck with a mass of quills. Frieda and Fran were what had been hiding in the darkness, and they had stuck the four wolves in the faces with their quills to teach them a lesson.

There was no laughter coming from these two porcupines, which was a surprise from these two humorous critters, as the wolves ran off whimpering and screaming due to the masses of quills stuck in their flesh. They had done it to protect Daria, a good friend of Frieda and Fran, as Runt and Floyd led her out of Shadow Forest.

"Who's next?" Frieda growled.


End file.
